Tour of Art Along the Gold Line

"Water Street: River of Dreams," public art by Cheri Gaulke

Please join me on Saturday, June 26, 2010, 10 am for a very special event — Art Along the Gold Line — a docent and artist-led tour along the MTA’s Pasadena Gold Line. The tour is a fundraiser for the Avenue 50 Studio, a non-profit art gallery in Highland Park. www.avenue50studio.com

Join us as we artistically bridge East Los and Pasadena on the Metro Gold Line. Meet the artists of the Metro stations who will describe their artwork in the community. We will have refreshments as we travel along plus lunch will be provided by Home Girl Café.

The tour will be led by Vanessa Acosta, Board Member and owner of Cultural Arts Tours and Workshops with participating artists:
John Valadez — Memorial Park Station
Southwest Museum — MTA Docent
Cheri Gaulke — Cypress Park/Lincoln Heights Station
Little Tokyo Station — MTA Docent
Mariachi Plaza — MTA Docent
Paul Botello — Indiana Station
Maravilla Station — Jose Lopez
Clement Hanami — East LA Civic Center
Ulises Diaz — Atlantic Station
Michael Amescua — Union Station
Chinatown Station — MTA Docent

Donation:  $40 per person includes snacks and lunch. Please make checks payable to “Avenue 50 Studio.”

We will meet at the Pasadena Senior Center, 85 East Holly Street, Pasadena, CA 91103 for registration between 9:30 to 9:55 am. We will walk to the Memorial Station and begin the tour there. Refreshments will be served at the Senior Center. Parking is available at the Marriott for about $6 all day on Raymond, across from Memorial Park, next to the Armory Center for the Arts and Heritage Wine.

So if you’ve ever wanted to know more about the art on the Gold Line, this tour is for you! Maybe I’ll see you there.

Speaking of Movies with Jason Reitman

In December 2009, I co-hosted (with my colleague and collaborator Kevin O’Malley) another event in our series Speaking of Movies with Jason Reitman. We created the series with Jason, our former student from the Harvard-Westlake class of 1995, to interview interesting people from the film industry in front of a student audience. With the recent release of Up in the Air, we decided to turn the tables and have Jason be our guest. We screened the film at Paramount Studios for an audience of Harvard-Westlake students, parents and alumni. The event “sold out” in 2 hours! After the screening, I interviewed Reitman and O’Malley videotaped.

It was exciting to see the film after having visited the set in St. Louis with my daughters. We had seen some of the scenes being shot and between takes Jason entertained us by showing us scenes on his laptop that he’d already edited. There was a particular scene we watched being filmed in which George Clooney’s character must fire the man he most admires, the head of the airlines played by Sam Elliott. The scene wasn’t in the movie! I ran up to Jason afterwards and asked, “Where was that scene?” and he informed me it will be on the DVD. So look for that.

The award-winning Harvard-Westlake school newspaper, The Chronicle, has posted the interview. I’ve seen Jason do a few Q and A’s now and I’m really impressed with him as a public speaker. He is charming, funny, and insightful. Check out his analysis of why we like (I do!) the TV show 24. Enjoy!

Gaulke Interviews Reitman from hw chronicle on Vimeo.

Filipino WWII Veterans Memorial Featured in New Book

Los Angeles's Historic Filipinotown by Carina Monica Montoya

Los Angeles's Historic Filipinotown by Carina Monica Montoya

The Filipino WWIII Veterans Memorial I designed is included in a new book called “Los Angeles’s Historic Filipinotown” by author Carina Monica Montoya (from Arcadia Publishing). The Filipino American Library (FAL) will present a Book Launch on Saturday, April 4 at 2:00pm at Lake Street Park (227 N. Lake St., Los Angeles 90026). I am scheduled to speak briefly at 3:10. For more information about Montoya’s book contact  [email protected] or 213-382-0488.

Also on sale will be the book “Valor: Filipino World War II Veterans Memorial” that is an indepth look at the memorial itself. Published by Midmarch Arts Press, it includes essays by art writers Betty Ann Brown and Eleanor Heartney, as well as Filipino writers Enrique de la Cruz and Mae Respicio. Stunning photographs of the memorial by Kevin O’Malley plus all of the historic photos and information I culled for the memorial grace its pages. Both books sell for $20 each.

Valor: Filipino World War II Veternas Memorial by Cheri Gaulke

Valor: Filipino World War II Veternas Memorial by Cheri Gaulke

The City Council of Los Angeles officially designated Historic Filipinotown on August 2, 2002 . It is the first Filipino community in the United States to merit a named area with distinct geographic boundaries. Historic Filipinotown was once home to one of the largest Filipino enclaves in California , a place where many Filipinos purchased their first homes, raised families, and established businesses. The cultural continuity of the area’s Filipino families and businesses inspired the collective efforts of Filipino organizations, Los Angeles community leaders, and individuals to establish Historic Filipinotown and maintain its vibrant culture.

Come help us celebrate this community and the publishing efforts that keep its history alive.

College Art Association Conference Presentations on Public Art and Motherhood

 

This Wednesday, February 25, 2009, I will be on two panels at the College Art Association conference in Los Angeles. I am chairing the panel, What’s the Story: Public Art and Narrative. It requires a CAA conference pass which you can find out more about here http://conference.collegeart.org/2009/. The second panel, Breaking in Two and Mending: Art and Motherhood, is free and open to the public, as it is sponsored by Women’s Caucus for Art.

 

 

 Water Street: River of Dreams, Gaulke's metro station art

What’s the Story? Public Art and Narrative in Los Angeles

 

Wednesday, February 25, 9:30 am – 12 pm

West Hall Meeting Room 515A, Level 2, Los Angeles Convention Center

College Art Association 2009, Chair: Cheri Gaulke

 

Public art can be “plop art,” completely unrelated to its location, or it can be intimately connected to the history, culture, and geography of the place where it is sited. What happens when public artists see themselves in service of a story about the place or community in which the work will exist? What motivates the artist to approach the work in this way and what is the process of researching and creating the work? Los Angeles has a rich tradition of public art ranging from historic works from its founding in the nineteenth century through the WPA era, to more recent murals by community activists, to contemporary artworks integrated into metro stations, libraries, and civic locations. Many of these works reveal fascinating stories about the people, both ordinary and extraordinary, who have contributed to making Los Angeles into a multicultural city.
The presenters on this panel include scholars and working artists who will bring insights into a discussion of such issues as: How do artists distill complex historical stories into visual statements? What is the role of text in narrative-based visual art? How do public artists engage audiences as active viewers? Is collaboration with non-artists a component of making the work? Does the ethnic identity of the artists and the communities, if different, present challenges in the production of the work? Does the gender or politics of the artists to be featured in this panel presentation, which are female and feminist, play a role in their aesthetic or thematic approach?
 
Outline of Panel Presentations:

Cheri Gaulke – Overview showing many LA works by women and raising some issues that can be discussed

Marlena Doktorczyk Donohue – “The Theory and Practice of Social Story Telling” Donohue will lay out a theoretical framework while discussing specific projects by Kim Abeles and Cheri Gaulke.

Holly Barnet-Sanchez – “Meanings that Change Over Time – The Public Faces of Murals at Estrada Courts Housing Project in East LA” An historic look at murals produced in a federally funded housing project in the 1970s.

May Sun – will present her many works in LA that incorporate text and storytelling including “Listening for the Trains to Come” in Chinatown, “La Ballona” in Culver City, “Sky Coyote” in Woodland Hills, “Flow” in Pasadena, (title?) in Union Station, and the Hollywood & Western Red Line Subway station.

Sheila de Bretteville“LA to Ekaterinburg; how this story develops…” De Bretteville will discuss the evolution of her public art practice from early Los Angeles public artworks (Biddy Mason wall, Little Tokyo sidewalk) to a recent project in Russia.

Jacki Apple – on the Venice Oakwood Project which presents a visual and oral history of African-American seniors in Venice.

 Gaulke and her family

Breaking in Two and Mending: Art and Motherhood

Wednesday, February 25, 12:30 – 2 pm

Concourse Meeting Room 406AB, Level 2, Los Angeles Convention Center

Sponsored by CAA/Women’s Caucus for Art

A lively discussion about the challenges faced by artist-mothers, as well as the benefits of their very full lives. The session is structured around 5 themes, with two panelists each conversing about that theme. 

 

Pairings and Themes:

Alison Saar/Tierney Gearon (motherhood as content)

The artist-mother, in her expression of motherhood, breaks away from the image of motherhood fed to us by the media. What new ways do we see artist-mothers expressing an essential topic that has been trivialized and devalued because it is too ‘obvious.’ What is the public’s reaction to these artistic expressions of motherhood?

Kim Yasuda/Cheri Gaulke (the artist’s space and the home space)

How do artist-mothers deal with conflicting priorities? The artist-mother can be pulled equally by both the need to produce art and the need to respond to children’s needs and be present with the family. Culturally, these have been incompatible if we still think of the artist as being selfish, self-obsessed and the mother as selfless, all-sacrificing.Please also discuss partners in the home, especially supportive partners.

Linda Vallejo/Kim Abeles (financial dependence/independence)

How do women make it in the art world? What have been some of the choices they have made in order to sustain their art and make it all work? The social/economical system is not supportive of professional women who have children, and even less of artists who have children. How does this affect women as a whole?  How does it affect different ethnic groups?  For some professions in the arts, is it an advantage to hide one’s identity as mother in order to get a job?

Ruth Weisberg/ Alicia Weisberg-Roberts (generational issues / role models / leading meaningful lives, child’s perspective)

What differences have there been in raising children in the 70s as opposed to raising children today? What rewards have there been for both mother and child when the artist-mother is dedicated to both aspects of her life? What is this like when the children are still at home, as compared to later when the children leave and are independent?

Bruria Finkel/Sabine Sighicelli (exhibition / documentary)

Breaking in Two:  The Exhibition will explore the image and place of the mother in our culture through four generations of artists

Breaking in Two:  The Documentary Film focuses on the creation of this group exhibition, as a starting point for an exploration into the mother’s psyche and into our culture’s conditioning.

 

 

 

Kim Abeles Transforms Trash Into Art at Harvard-Westlake School

Obama in 9 Days of Smog and McCain in 18 Days of Smog, 2008

Obama in 9 Days of Smog and McCain in 18 Days of Smog, 2008

I would like to invite you to check out this exhibition I organized at Harvard-Westlake School where I am now the Visual Arts Department Chair.

Over a period of five weekdays, nationally acclaimed artist Kim Abeles was dumpster diving at Harvard-Westlake’s upper school to collect trash without the general knowledge of students, faculty or staff. She then cleaned, ironed, and assembled the trash in her studio and transformed it into new artwork. Abeles environmental art, as well as works that were collaborations with Harvard-Westlake students, will be featured in the Feldman-Horn Gallery in an exhibition called Nature Studies, from Feb. 9 – March 6. The gallery is open 8 a.m. – 4 p.m. school days and on Saturdays from 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Please join us for two public events on Wednesday, Feb. 18. At 9:35 a.m., Abeles will do a gallery talk especially for students and staff, and she conducts another talk at 6 p.m. especially for parents and the public, which will be followed by a reception until 9 p.m.

Abeles, currently a professor of art at the California State University, Northridge, earned national recognition with her smog series in which she literally invented a way to “paint” with particulate matter. The Harvard-Westlake exhibit will feature her complete collection of presidential smog plates. Other large-scale environmentally themed works on display include The Leaf Lounge (All the World’s Leaves), in which hundreds of fabric leaves were created at five times the normal size in which Gallery visitors are encouraged to lounge!

Leaf Lounge (All the World’s Leaves), 2000

Leaf Lounge (All the World’s Leaves), 2000

Background
Each year, the Harvard-Westlake Visual Arts Department hosts a professional artist’s exhibition in Feldman-Horn Gallery. Inspired by HW’s Green Initiative, Visual Arts Dept. Chair Cheri Gaulke contacted Kim Abeles, who is known for work that addresses environmental issues and often involves communities. Abeles began working with teachers and students to develop projects that involve the skill sets taught within the classes. Students in various departments examined the relationship between humans and the world around them, particularly our consumption-driven culture. Video students recorded Abeles as she dumpster-dove and carried garbage from the trash bins to her car. Math classes evaluated the typical consumption and waste at Harvard-Westlake based on the collected materials, like the amount of water left in discarded water bottles. Photography students investigated the relationship between the sun’s ultraviolet rays and skin tones. Sculpture students made “smog catchers” by using leaves from campus trees. Environmental-science students collected water labels and documented the trash each of them generates over two days. The environmental club and women’s studies students made connections between the environment and Native American spiritual teachings. Journalism students documented the entire process in the school newspaper.

In the spring, a catalog of the exhibition will be published that documents and examines the role of art in education and how art can be a tool for social change around issues such as the environmental crisis. The exhibition and catalog are made possible through the generous support of Harvard-Westlake Trustee Janis Feldman Horn.

For more information, contact Harvard-Westlake Visual Art Department Chair Cheri Gaulke at (818) 487-6596 or [email protected].